A/HRC/40/CRP.1 information naming other individuals who are reportedly part of the SPLA Military Intelligence apparatus, as being present and/or in charge of these facilities; however, further investigation is necessary to clarify their positions and the extent of their involvement in and responsibility for human rights violations and related crimes. The Commission also received information identifying a General who was a senior commander at the Giada military barracks, however, further investigations are required to establish his precise position. In this regard, the Commission notes that an individual by the same name, the Commander of the Presidential Guard (also called Tiger Division)486 is listed on the United Nations sanctions list, pursuant to Resolution 2206/2015 and that the Giada barracks was reportedly guarded by the SPLA Tiger Division. The Commission has collected information that some civilians were arbitrarily detained and ill-treated by Military Intelligence at the SPLA Grinthi barracks in Wau, the base of the 5 Division of the SPLA. As noted below in section VII(C), in line with the principles of military hierarchy, the Commander of the 5 Division, a Major General, would therefore have command responsibility for the troops subordinated to him and under his control, including officers of the Military Intelligence, whom he in any case outranked. The Commission has also received information identifying an officer who was reportedly the Director of Military Intelligence in Yei town, Central Equatoria State, and in charge of detention at the local military barracks, where he ordered arbitrary arrests and detentions and supervised summary and extra-judicial killings in 2016-2018. In addition, command responsibility for crimes committed by military intelligence personnel could likewise be attributed to a Major General who was the Commander of SPLA 6 Division Commander in Yei during 2016.487 b) State Responsibility As the NSS and the SPLA are government bodies, their violations of human rights give rise to state responsibility on the part of the Republic of South Sudan. The Government has a duty to investigate and prosecute these human rights violations and alleged crimes and to provide compensation and restitution to the victims and their families. The Commission reiterates that the South Sudanese Government has been regularly urged by international media, diplomats, and international human rights organizations to release those arbitrarily detained and to launch prompt, effective and impartial investigations into the human rights violations committed against detainees. 488 As such the South Sudanese Government should be well aware of the human rights violations committed against its own citizens by members of its own security services, sworn to uphold the law. South Sudan has the obligation under the Convention Against Torture, to which it is a party, to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture, as well as acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, in any territory under its jurisdiction.489 No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.490 It has the duty to undertake a prompt and impartial investigation where there are reasonable grounds to believe that torture or acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment have been committed. 491 The Commission has received no information regarding steps taken by the Government to criminally investigate and prosecute those responsible for these events in any of the detention centres listed above, or to provide compensation to any of the victims. Sudan Tribune, “Kiir appoints new Presidential Guard commander”, 14 May 2017. Confidential Document, ERN D103041-D103041. 488 For example, Delegation of the European Union to South Sudan, Joint Statement on the Detention of Peter Biar Ajak, 3 August 2018; Amnesty International, “South Sudan: Denied Protection of the Law – National Security Service Detention in Juba, South Sudan”, April 2016; Amnesty International, “A Trail of Broken Promises, Detention, Torture and Other Ill-Treatment by the National Security Service and Military Intelligence Directorate in Juba, South Sudan, Continues”, September 2018; Human Rights Watch, “South Sudan Announces Release of ‘Prisoners of War and Detainees’”, 28 September 2018. 489 Convention Against Torture, Articles 2(1), 16. 490 Convention Against Torture, Article 2(2). 491 Convention Against Torture, Article 12. 486 487 77